AMD unlocks its APUs for desktops and notebooks
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Dec. 21, 2011
AMD has unlocked its A-Series APUs (accelerated processing units) for desktops and notebooks, added an update to its
AMD Steady Video tech, and for the first time, the company has made a pair of its CPU-GPU mashups overclockable, greatly
improving the speed of its chips in the process.
To be sure, the speed improvements are nothing major, but the overclockable APUs should be welcomed by multitaskers
that demand a faster machine.
However, if you're tempted by the overclockable four-core A8-3870K or A6-3670K, however, do note the fine print in
AMD's announcement of the new parts: "AMD's product warranty does not cover damages caused by overclocking, even when
overclocking is enabled via AMD software." You've been warned!
You can toggle the software on or off using AMD's Catalyst Control Center utility or Vision Engine Control Center
app, and use it on video running on Adobe's Flash Player 10.2 or later, or any player that uses Microsoft's DXVA API.
"On select systems using AMD A-Series APUs," an AMD spokesman says "Internet Explorer 9 will include an AMD Steady
Video plugin, unlocking one-click control to simplify access to the premium AMD Steady Video feature for video stabilization."
The new APUs are already in the component channel, and AMD estimates they'll hit the retail channel "over the next
several weeks".
In other hi tec news
Seagate said yesterday that it has completed its acquisition of Samsung's hard disk drive division.
Seagate has gained Samsung’s Spinpoint MP4 and M8 line of 2.5 in. HD drives and a R&D facility in South Korea.
Samsung employees joining Seagate include a number of senior managers and design engineers from the South Korean
facility, who will focus mainly on the development of small form-factor products for the tablet market.
This transaction was announced in April of this year along with a series of other agreements between Seagate and
Samsung. Seagate is supplying disk drives to Samsung for PCs, notebooks and consumer electronics devices.
In turn, Samsung is supplying flash chips for use in Seagate’s enterprise solid state drives (SSDs), solid-state
hybrid drives and other products. The two companies have also extended and enhanced an existing patent cross-licencing
agreement and increased their cooperation to co-develop enterprise storage products.
All this is said to substantially expand Seagate’s customer access in China, Southeast Asia, Brazil, Germany and
Russia.
Seagate's CEO Steve Luczo said that his company and Samsung have aligned their product development efforts to get
new products to market faster.
Under the deal, Seagate will retain certain Samsung HDD products under the Samsung brand name for 12 months, and
maintain or establish a number of independent operations including sales staff, key production lines and R&D.
Overall, Samsung has three 2.5-inch products:
Spinpoint MP4 7,200 rpm, up to 640 GB, 2-platter notebook drive
Spinpoint M8 5,400 rpm, up to 1 TB, 2-platter notebook drive
S3 Portable 3.0 5,400 rpm, up to 640 GB external drive, contains an MP4 disk
Seagate's 2.5-inch product line is much more extensive:
Savvio 10,000 rpm, up to 900 GB, 3-platter, enterprise tier-1 drive
Constellation 7,200 rpm, up to 1 TB, 4-platter, enterprise tier-2 drive
Momentus 7,200 rpm, up to 750 GB, 2-platter notebook drive
Momentus 5,400 rpm, up to 750 GB, 2-platter notebook drive
Momentus Thin 5,400 rpm, 320 GB, 1-platter notebook/ultrabook drive
Momentus XT 7,200 rpm, 750 GB + 8 GB flash, 2-platter hybrid notebook drive
FreeAgent GoFlex 5,400 rpm, up to 1.5 TB external drives
The MP4 overlaps with the Momentus 7.2K and will disappear, possibly quite soon. The M8 has more advanced technology
than the Momentus 5.4K and that technology will probably be used in a future Momentus 5.4K line although the SpinPoint
M8 brand will likely go away after 12 months.
Source: American Micro Devices.
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